Nepal has defeated Malaysia in the ACC Men's Premier Cup one-day international cricket tournament which began here today.
In the inaugural match of the tournament held at Tribhuvan University (TU) cricket ground in Kirtipur, Nepal defeated Malaysia by 6 wickets.
Nepal surpassed the Malaysian total of 235 runs at the loss of 4 wickets in 36.2 overs, riding on a patient 71 runs in 98 balls by Bhim Sarki and an unbeaten 70 runs off 40 balls by Kushal Malla. Others contributing to the victory with the bat included captain Rohit Paudel who scored 42 runs while Kushal Bhurtel scored 38 runs.
Mohammad Wafiq, Rizwan Haider, Vijay Unni and Virandeep Singh took one wicket each for the visitors.
Earlier, choosing to bat first after winning the toss, Malaysia managed to garner 235 runs at the loss of 9 wickets in the scheduled 50 overs. For Malaysia, Ahmed Faiz was the top scorer with 76 runs. Similarly, Virandeep Singh scored 46 runs and Khizar Hayat scored 22 runs.
For the bowling side, Sompal Kami and Sandeep Lamichhane took 3 wickets each while Lalit Narayan Rajbanshi took two wickets and Gulsan Jha took one wicket.
With this win, Nepal has collected two points. Nepal is grouped together with Oman, Qatar, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.
Similarly, Group 'B' comprises the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Hong Kong, Kuwait, Singapore and Bahrain.
The UAE will face Kuwait at TU cricket ground while Oman and Qatar face each other at Mulpani cricket ground in the two matches to be played tomorrow.
Organised by the Asian Cricket Council, the 2023 ACC Men's Premier Cup is the final stage of qualification for the 2023 Asia Cup. The winner of the tournament will qualify for the 2023 Asia Cup. Likewise, the top three teams will qualify for the 2023 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup.
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